I parked the car in the alley behind the house and made my way through the back door. The kitchen was a mess, obviously the leftover remnants of Titus trying to make himself lunch. I sighed under my breath and threw my purse on the table. It took me fifteen minutes to put stuff back in the fridge, rinse off the dishes, and wipe down the counters. I was irritated when I went to go find him. I wasn’t his maid for goodness’ sake.
When I got to living room he was easy enough to spot. Somehow he had managed to push all the furniture to the edges of the room and he was laid out on his back in the center of the room doing sit-ups. His shirt was off, showing the Ace bandage that was still wrapped around his bruised ribs and all he had on for clothing, if you wanted to call it that, was a pair of black boxer briefs, since getting anything on over his cast took both of us and a lot of tugging and swearing. He must have been at it for a while because all his muscles were pulled taut and a slippery sheen of sweat dotted all of his naked skin. He was breathing hard enough that I could hear him from across the room and it was louder than the heels of my shoes clicking on the hardwood floors as I made my way toward him. He turned his head as I approached but didn’t stop curling up and down until I plopped myself down right on top of him. He fell back to the floor with a grunt and put his hands on my waist. Fortunately for me, I had worn a skirt when I went out to run around town, so all his hot and sweaty skin brushed enticingly along my bare thighs as I straddled him. He always felt better than anything in life ever had.
I rubbed my fingers on the white spot in his hair. It seemed to have stopped spreading and now was the size of an Oreo cookie, stark and brilliant against the rest of his black hair. It was one of my favorite features of his. One of the other ones was coming to life under my backside as I leaned forward to kiss him soundly on the mouth.
“How did you move all the furniture? You’re supposed to be taking it easy.”
His hands moved to my thighs and started pushing the filmy fabric of my skirt up my legs. The roughness of his palms made me shiver as he kissed me back just as hard and just as forcefully as he always did.
“Taking it easy sucks. I want to go back to work as soon as this stupid thing comes off. That means I need to stay bigger and badder than the guys committing the crimes.”
I put my hands on his rock-hard chest and dug my nails into the unyielding muscle that lived there. “Sitting around and watching TV for a few weeks isn’t going to turn you into an out-of-shape blob, Titus. You deserve to relax.”
His eyebrows shot up as his fingers dipped into the edge of the panties at the very top of my thigh. I was already getting wet and ready.
“I do relax.” His fingers danced under the fabric closer to the heart of me.
“When?” The word came out in a breathy rush and I leaned forward even more, giving him more access to the places I wanted him to touch. My hair fell around us like a curtain blocking out the afternoon light.
“When I’m inside of you.” I gasped at him as his fingers found that perfect point of pleasure and began to trip across it.
I narrowed my eyes at him and put a hand on his cheek. “I’m going to cut you off from sex if you don’t start picking up after yourself. Seriously, how hard is it to throw a plate in the sink?” The threat would have held more weight if I wasn’t riding his fingers as he slipped them inside of me.
“You can’t say no to me, Reeve. You want the beast just as much as he wants you.” He kissed me again and I whimpered a little as he pulled his hand away from me and out from under my skirt. I was going to pout at him when he told me, “Take those off and turn around. We can relax each other.” He wiggled his eyebrows up and down as I apprehensively did as he asked, proving that he was right. I would never say no to him.
Naked, I sat back down on top of his ripped abs and looked at him over my shoulder through my lashes. “Now what, Detective?”
He chuckled low and it vibrated through my entire body. “Now we take care of each other.” His big hands grasped my hips and pulled me backward so that I was on my hands and knees, hovering over him, with all my private and secret places opened and in front of him. I was about to ask him what he thought he was doing when his tongue darted out and licked across me from top to bottom. The searing heat made me gasp in shock, and when I looked down I realized I was right above his cotton-covered erection. Take care of each other indeed. I braced myself with one hand on the floor next to his cast and carefully worked his straining flesh out with the other. The velvet-soft head brushed against my lips as I brought it closer to my mouth. He said my name and it made my clit tingle against his lips. I was trying to concentrate on what I was doing and I bent down to engulf his cock in the wet heat of my mouth, but what he was doing to me with his mouth was making it hard.
I took him down as deep as I could and then bobbed back up. I tried to time it with the tricky flick of his tongue and the delectable thrust and retreat of his fingers, but it was impossible. His rhythm was fast and hard, I liked mine to be slow and torturous. He wanted to wind me up and make me shatter, I wanted to slow him down and fill him up with so much pleasure that he overflowed. It was the sexiest war ever fought.
He added another finger as he continued to lick and fuck me. I added my fist around the base of his erection and squeezed as I continued to suck him and play with him. My head was swimming with the combined arousal, mine and his, and when he reached between us and got his clever fingers around the hurting tip of one of my breasts, I knew I wasn’t going to be able to hold out any longer. I hummed around his staring arousal and darted a hand between his legs so I could rub my fingers across his taut balls. It made his entire body bow up off the floor.
“Let me inside, Reeve.” I sort of loved it more than anything when he gave orders like that, so I released that delectable hard flesh with a slick flick of my tongue and lifted myself back up onto my knees over him. I didn’t bother to turn around. That would’ve just wasted time. I scooted down to his waist and lifted myself up so that he could align himself with my glistening opening. Once I felt the tip of him touch my damp fold, I sank all the way down, making both of us sigh. He put one hand on my hip and lifted up his good leg, which forced my legs farther apart on either side of him. It stretched me out and made the drag and pull of him inside of me even more noticeable as I started to move up and down in a steady rocking motion.
I looked over my shoulder, wanting to make sure he was feeling all that I was feeling, but he wasn’t looking at me. That passion-hot gaze lit from the inside by silver fire was locked on the place where we were joined. He licked his lips and his fingers got tighter and tighter every time my body took his in. That was the look of possession. It was the look of the primal things that he kept hidden coming up to the surface and taking what belonged to them. It was the look of love and the fight that it took to keep that love. It was a look that was enough to have me erupting and breaking apart all over him.
I leaned forward with a sigh and rested my cheek on his good knee as he lifted his hips a few more times and pumped into me until he found his own completion. I almost purred as he rubbed his palm up and down my spine.
“See. Nice and relaxed.” I would’ve rolled my eyes at him if I had any kind of energy left.
“That still doesn’t make up for leaving the kitchen a mess.” He twisted his hands in my hair and pulled me back so that I was lying all over the top of him and we were staring at the ceiling. “I’ll take care of you forever, Titus, but I’m not going to clean up after you like the hired help.”
He laughed in my ear and put his arm across my breasts. He couldn’t be comfortable with the floor at his back and me on top of him, but if he wasn’t going to complain, I was in no hurry to move.
“I’m sorry. I’ll try and be better about it.” I could only sigh because that was what he always said. “And I didn’t move the furniture, Nassir did. He stopped by to ask me for a favor, and while he was here I asked him to help me get it out of the way.”
&nb
sp; I stiffened automatically. I couldn’t think of any kind of favor I wanted my too slick and too ruthless boss asking my man for.
“What did Nassir want?” Titus’s free hand started rubbing in slow circles across my belly and I wondered if he was thinking about what was inevitably going to happen in there if we kept having uninhibited sex without protection. I shivered a little when I realized he was tracing invisible hearts across my skin.
“He asked me to track someone down for him.”
I put my hand over his and whispered, “Keelyn?”
Titus grunted his affirmative. “Yeah. I told him no.”
I couldn’t believe the relief that swamped me. “Why?”
“Because he’s going to find her with me or without me, and when he does we both know she’ll end up back here. She’s your friend . . . sort of . . . so I don’t want any part of bringing her back to this place if she had a chance at making it somewhere else. Nassir gets it, but he left here and went right to Stark. That guy will have a location on her in two minutes. Especially since we all know that she’s in Denver already.”
I sighed again. “Nassir named the new club Lock and Key. That can’t be coincidence.” It wasn’t open yet but already the city and the streets were alive with noise and anticipation to see what the prince of sin and darkness could offer to them.
“No, it’s probably not. Love can look really strange in the Point. In fact, if you aren’t paying attention you might miss it altogether because it doesn’t look like love at all.”
I tilted my head so I could kiss him. “Well, I’m glad not much gets by you, Detective.”
He kissed me back. “And I’m glad you fight for what you think is right, Reeve.”
That’s what it took to not just survive but to thrive in the Point.
Love and fight.
Good thing we had plenty of both.
To be continued with Nassir’s story . . .
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
REALLY MY BIGGEST THANKS in the whole world goes to all of you that made it to this point (pun slightly intended). I can never tell those of you that are willing to try something new—willing to let me tell all kinds of stories, willing to follow me as I build all these new worlds, and willing to invest your time and trust into these intense, complicated, wild characters—how grateful and appreciative I am of you. You are readers and book lovers after my own heart. I adore that you took a chance on something different and I can only hope that I didn’t let you down. I always hope the risk is worth the reward because as most of my readers know my entire career is based on taking a risk and trying something new. Honestly, the Point is a total manifestation of that kind of do-or-die attitude and maybe that’s why I have more fun than any one person should have when I write these books.
I have so many ideas, so many stories floating around in my head that without you being here, I think I might just explode. Creativity is a hungry beast and it needs more than one kind of food to feed it. So thank you for the support, the love, and the journey. Thank you for being brave. J I wouldn’t be here without you and neither would any of these amazing characters you’ve given me the opportunity to bring to life. My readers are everything . . . never doubt that.
Thank you blogger nation for all that you do. Thank you for getting the word out. Thank you for loving books and sharing that love with the rest of the world. Thank you for being hard working and selfless. Thank you for being honest. Thank you for being real.
As always, the hot cop would not be all he could be without my editor, Amanda, and he wouldn’t get as much love out there in the world if it wasn’t for my killer team over at HarperCollins/William Morrow. Jessie, Molly, Caro, Elle . . . all you girls make this entire big bad world of publishing just slightly less terrifying and always make me feel like me and the boys are where we are meant to be . . . even if I thought A was trying to kill me this go-around. Oh don’t mind Jay over in the corner curled up in the fetal position when revisions come in . . . that’s just par for the course now. But seriously, thanks team, for well . . . being my team!
I can’t live without KP Simmon in my life! That’s all there is to it. She’s not only a marketing and publicity guru, she is also an amazing friend, a kind human being, a caretaker and a force to be reckoned with. Life, both business and personal, will always be just a little sweeter with some KP in it.
Stacey Donaghy, thanks for always being my guiding light and for always being able to roll with my crazy. Some days I know it can be a lot to handle but you always manage to do it and never let me go over the edge. Not an easy feat.
Melissa Shank and really the whole Shank crew, thanks for being wonderful, loving and strong. Thanks for being family and so full of love and life that it makes me happy every day that you’re a part of my life. Mel, you know I couldn’t get through half of the chaos that I create without you, and really, just thank you for always TCB without me asking. You’re the best and I have endless amounts of love and gratitude to heap on you forever and ever.
Vilma Gonzalez, Denise Tung, and Heather Self—thank you for being my girls! Thank you for putting up with endless texts and PMs. Thank you for reading all of the bazillion books that I write and giving me your unvarnished, raw, real feedback. Thank you for making me better at what I do. Thank you for being amazing, strong, funny, delightful women that make every day just a little bit better. Ha, and thank you for letting me send you endless parades of hot dudes while I’m searching for a cover guy . . . right . . . being my friend is hard sometimes. J I love you ladies and I really, really hate that you’re both so far away from me . . . blurg.
All my book peeps—Jen, Jen Mc, Jenn, J4, Tiffany, Cora, EK, Emma, Kristen, Jamie, Kimberly, Laurelin, Sophie, Monica, Tucker, Amy, Tijan, Lo, Karina, Chelsea, Crystal, Carolyn, Ali, Debbie, Denise, Renee, Stephanie, Damaris, Courtney, Christine, Danielle, Teri . . . you guys kick so much ass and I just want to squeeze you all and smother you in so much love.
Anyone that follows me on social media or has come out to meet me at an event knows there is a good chance my folks will make an appearance. I love my family and I have really been blessed with a set of parents that are everything. My mom has always been my best friend and my dad has always been the coolest guy I have ever known. One of the great joys writing has brought into my life is that I get to experience all this excitement and all these dreams coming true with them. So thanks mom and dad for being around to see all this and thank you so much for coming on the ride with me. Thanks for always bringing me a Bud Light so that I never run dry. Oh, and thanks for being so much fun—people at signings would rather hang out with you two than me!
As always, mad love to my pack (my furry family is the best thing in the world to come home to) and the man that loves them for me when I’m on the road. Thanks for being so dope Mike Maley! And I’m serious about an invite to the Renaissance festival this year!
As always, I’m easy to find if you want to holler at me and have me holler back:
https://www.facebook.com/jay.crownover
https://www.facebook.com/AuthorJayCrownover?ref=hl
@jaycrownover
www.jaycrownover.com
http://jaycrownover.blogspot.com/
https://www.goodreads.com/Crownover
http://www.donaghyliterary.com/jay-crownover.html
http://www.avonromance.com/author/jay-crownover
NOW THAT THE MEN OF THE POINT HAVE ALL MET THEIR MATCHES, NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLING AUTHOR JAY CROWNOVER IS HEADING BACK TO COLORADO WITH HER BRAND-NEW SERIES, THE SAINTS OF DENVER!
BUILT
Sayer Cole and Zeb Fuller are as different as two people can be. She’s country club and fine dining, he’s cell block and sawdust. Sayer spends her days in litigation, while Zeb spends his working with his hands. She’s French silk, while he is all denim and flannel.
The differences between the two of them don’t stop Zeb from dropping every hint he can think of that he would like to get to know the lovely lawyer on a more per
sonal level, but Sayer seems oblivious to his interest. To Sayer, a manly guy like Zeb, someone so good with his hands, could never be interested in someone as reserved as she is. She’s never been with anyone that was hot enough to melt her icy exterior, but something tells her Zeb might be the guy to finally thaw her out.
When Zeb gets the surprise of a lifetime in the form of a kid he never knew he had, getting Sayer into bed takes a backseat. He desperately needs her professional help to get custody of his son before he ends up lost to Zeb forever. Somewhere between bringing broken, battered homes back to life and making sure a family stays together, these two opposites realize that on the inside they are exactly the same. As much as Sayer needs Zeb’s heat to melt the ice around her heart, he needs her cool head just as much—to win the most important fight of his life.
Available Winter 2016
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
JAY CROWNOVER is the New York Times and USA Today bestselling author of the Marked Men and Welcome to the Point series. Like her characters, she is a big fan of tattoos. She loves music and wishes she could be a rock star, but since she has no aptitude for singing or instrument playing, she’ll settle for writing stories with interesting characters that make the reader feel something.
Jaycrownover.com
facebook.com/AuthorJayCrownover
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Discover great authors, exclusive offers, and more at hc.com.
BY JAY CROWNOVER
The Welcome to the Point Series
Better When He’s Bold
Better When He’s Bad
The Marked Men Series
Asa
Rowdy
Nash
Rome
Jet
Rule
CREDITS
Cover design by Richard L. Aquan
Cover photographs: man © by George Kerrigan;
Better When He's Brave Page 29